Better care for elderly people who are mistreated

The City Council and the Health Consortium have signed a new agreement to guarantee coordination between social services and healthcare services to improve support in possible cases of abuse of the elderly, as well as a more comprehensive approach to a social issue which is often silenced.

12/06/2018 20:38 h

Redacció

Discrimination against the elderly on the grounds of age is a growing social phenomenon which has become one of the most common forms of discrimination after racism and sexism. The city’s social services detected 112 cases in 2017. Most of these involved psychological or emotional mistreatment, as well as negligence in care.

Abuse of the elderly is a complex issue, often one of the most unseen forms of violence as it occurs within people’s personal space and is more difficult to detect. Because of this, the new agreement aims to help both administrations take a proactive approach to prevent such situations.

Work has also gone into a detection mechanism for the telecare service which will become operative in the next few months. Similarly, action and intervention protocols are being worked on with security bodies, the prosecution service and duty judges to suitably assess the level of risk in each case and if necessary propose precautionary measures to help and protect those affected.

At the same time, a tool is being developed to help professionals assess where the problem is in each case and determine the best way to proceed.